


something just like this

by captain_kriegy



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 10:40:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10852293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captain_kriegy/pseuds/captain_kriegy
Summary: Becky is the senior captain of the soccer team expected to be picked in the first round of the college draft. Ali is a freshman with major heart eyes.





	something just like this

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone! this may not be the day to post this, given that they just played each other... but alas, here is an odd pairing for you all! i will be updating my other fics and writing a whole lot more this summer, but this was just an idea i got while in the midst of finals week and i felt inspired to write it. 
> 
> tw: brief mention of sexual assault, no details nor anything graphic involved.

Becky is a senior and the team’s captain. She is an All American, has been an All-Academic every year at UNC, and was the ACC Defender of the Year last year. She’s one of UNC’s top players, and one of their best center backs in program history. Ali is a freshman who has absolutely no idea how to navigate the higher level of play and the academic responsibilities, not to mention the social responsibilities, of college. Ali likes girls, and Becky makes her weak; the perfect combination of cute, smart, and so  _ nice _ . Ali has to remind herself, when Becky is asking her how she is or offering her water or offering to buy her alcohol, that Becky is a senior, probably straight, and completely off-limits. 

Becky is in-tune with other people, it’s just how she is. She knows Ali looks at her for a  bit longer than she looks at other people. She knows she watches her and flocks to her and texts her back faster than she does her teammates. She doesn’t think much of it, besides “oh, maybe she likes girls, maybe I should talk to her about that” because she loves taking the baby gays under her wing, but that’s where it starts and ends. 

The team drinks together a fair amount, especially before season starts. Becky drinks, but she doesn’t get inappropriately drunk. That’s never really been her scene, plus, as the captain, she feels like she needs to be the designated sober person so she can look after her intoxicated underclassmen and make sure they get home alright. Ali is a freshman, and basically thrives on doing endless shots of raspberry rubi at team parties. 

The first time they party as a team that year, Ali gets drunk. Not belligerent to the point where she’s blacked out or throwing up, but drunk enough to be loudly complaining that she doesn’t want to go home unless Becky walks her home. Everyone laughs it off, not really thinking much of it besides Ali being a silly drunk. Ali’s long brunette hair, her propensity to dress and act in mostly feminine ways, and the fact that she had drunkenly made her snap story a picture of a random dude’s abs last weekend had everyone else convinced she was completely straight. Becky finds Ali’s drunken adoration of her borderline endearing, except for the fact that Ali lives all the way across campus, and it’s raining. 

“Kriegs, I’m not walking across campus in this rain,” Becky tells her. Ali gives her these puppy dog eyes, and Becky sighs. “Okay. Do you want to sleep on my couch?” 

That does the trick, and drunk Ali is satisfied with the agreement. She hangs all over Becky, much to everyone’s amusement. Becky guides her back to her place, a cute apartment just a few minute walk away, trying to keep a hold on her without touching her bare skin where her crop top rides up over the hem of her jeans, and then grabs her a blanket and so she can sleep more easily on the couch. She gets her water, and they end up sitting up on Becky’s couch until four in the morning talking. At first, it’s Ali’s drunken rambles- she tells Becky most of her life story, everything from her parent’s divorce to her high school boyfriend sexually assaulting her to her brother being addicted to drugs. As Ali sobers up as the time goes on, she gets more somber, talking about how scared she is that she won’t be able to help the team, how she can’t help her parents or her brother or herself even, just how she feels so useless all the time. Becky talks a bit about her own life, her older brothers, the way she was always pushed to be tough and strong by her family but then isolated from other girls because of that in school. Becky realizes how late it is and decides to call it a night when she looks down at her phone and sees her 8 unread texts from her girlfriend asking if she’s okay. 

“Fuck,” Becky mutters, feeling bad that she didn’t respond to her sooner. Ali just looks at her questioningly. “My girlfriend. I told her I’d call her when I got home but then I totally forgot,” Becky explains. She texts her back an “i’m sorry, i got distracted taking care of a freshman” and gets up, making sure Ali has whatever she’ll need for the night. Ali doesn’t respond, too caught up in whether or not she’d heard her correctly and pleasantly surprised and simultaneously disappointed upon her judgement that she did indeed hear her say “girlfriend.” 

By the time Becky gets in bed, she’s realized that Ali isn't just a cute, silly freshman but she’s really starting to like her as a person, as an equal. Confused thoughts of the cute brunette sleeping on her couch filling her head as she tries to get comfortable in her bed, trying to ignore the “k. glad you’re safe. talk tomorrow” text from her girlfriend. 

 

When Ali shows up to the next team party, the last weekend before their season starts, Becky is drinking vodka straight out of the handle. The two had become closer since their life chat while Ali was drunk a few weeks ago, so Ali went up to her and took the handle out of her hand to take a swig of it herself. 

“What’s up, Becks?” Ali asks, trying to read why the girl who barely ever drinks is currently drinking straight out of a handle before most of the team has even showed up. 

“Got dumped this morning, so Yael agreed to be sober mom tonight!” Becky replies, a huge smile on her face as she tries to hide her disappointment. Ali looks Becky up and down again, taking in that she’s dressed a bit more provocative than she typically is, with a pair of quite short dark wash jean shorts and a skin tight black tank top that leaves an inch of her abs exposed. 

They have so much fun. Ali dances and hangs out with the other freshmen at least in the beginning, but by the time everyone is filing out to stumble to their next party, Ali has an arm wrapped around Becky’s waist and is leaning into her as they pass a beer back and forth. By the time they roll out with a few of their other teammates, Ali asks if she can stay on Becky’s couch again and drunk Becky is more than welcoming. Yael, Becky’s roommate, makes sure they’re both okay, and joins Ali on the couch as Becky gets them all water.  

It isn’t until about an hour into their drunk chat that Becky turns the corner from happy drunk to sad drunk. She goes kind of quiet, sitting next to Ali and Yael on the couch and Yael gives her a knowing look. 

“I was a shitty girlfriend,” Becky starts. Yael rolls her eyes. Ali just looks between them, unsure how to respond, too drunk to think about it logically. 

“You know you weren’t a shitty girlfriend. You guys were just looking for different things out of the relationship and that’s okay. You weren’t great for each other and it’s not your fault, Becks.” 

“I wasn’t pretty enough for her,” Becky tries next. Ali scoffs out loud at that. 

“I don’t know. I just feel like there has to be a reason I wasn’t a good enough person to give her what she needed from me.” 

“That’s just how it works sometimes, Becks,” Yael reminds her roommate, patting her on the shoulder and getting up to grab more water and go to the bathroom. Ali slides closer to Becky on the couch, resting her head on her shoulder and snuggling up next to her. 

“Anyone would be lucky to have you. And cut it with the ‘I wasn’t pretty enough’ BS, you’re cute as fuck.” 

“You’ve been staring at me since your first day and I still haven’t figured it out,” Becky replies, looking straight ahead. Ali laughs, burying her face into Becky’s shoulder, kind of embarrassed that Becky read her like that. 

"You're smart and stunning and funny and an amazing player and leader, what's not to stare at?" 

"I don't know. You're the cool wild fun girl who can get any boy,” Becky tells her. 

“Any boy, but clearly not any girl,” Ali mumbles. Yael walks out of the kitchen with more water, and reads Becky’s face, combined with the way Ali is curled up into the senior, which tells her it’s time for them all to get to bed. Yael heads back to her room, calling out a goodnight to Ali and Becky, and Becky gets Ali situated, helping to pull the blanket over her in a way that’s a just a bit too intimate. She can tell Ali is a little sad, and it tugs at Becky’s heart strings. Not only does she know exactly what it feels like when you know you can’t have the person you want, but part of her wishes she could have Ali too. 

Again, when she tries to fall asleep, it’s thoughts of Ali, of the fact that they’ve finally confirmed that Ali is into her, that Ali is a fucking freshman, all on repeat in her head. 

 

Their friendship grows stronger, but because Becky is reasonable, and the senior captain, and it’s soccer season, they don’t mention the tension between them again. They actually find themselves more intimate in their friendship, with this understanding that that’s all it is. They can have drunk hand holds, longer hugs after games, and hang out more outside of team things. They’re partying after a game, about a month later, and Becky is escorting Ali to the bathroom when another drunk freshman, Kelley, starts asking the rest of the team if they think anything is happening between them. 

“Isn’t Ali straight?” Heather, one of the other upperclassmen Ali had become close with over the first semester asks. KO laughs, almost spitting out her beer. 

“Okay, you’re blind, HAO, but let’s be real, Becky would never,” Syd pipes in. Yael is almost drunk enough to add her opinion on the situation, but bites her lip, thankful for her decision when Becky and Ali return a moment later, Becky giving her a look to ask why everyone fell quiet when they walked in. 

The team makes it to the College Cup, but suffers a devastating loss in overtime to their local rivals, Duke, in the semifinals. Ali doesn’t even try to talk to Becky, leaving that to the other seniors, but makes sure to hug her extra close. Becky is like dead weight in her arms, and it breaks her heart. Becky will never win a collegiate national championship and it is just wrong. 

Before they know it, it’s finals, and then it’s winter break. Ali and Becky keep in touch over the break, more than either of them thought they would. They FaceTime so that they can meet each other’s pets, and they find themselves unpacking the situation with friends from home- “hey, I’m really in deep for this senior” and “I have a high key crush on a freshman.” 

Becky is also preparing for the NWSL draft, which could end with her across the country. Ali likes to avoid thinking about that possibility, but realistically, Becky playing for Portland or Seattle would make the whole situation void anyway. 

“Look Becks, if you like her, I don’t see a reason you shouldn’t go for it,” her friend from home, Julie, tells her. Becky sighs, exasperated. 

“Because I may end up moving across the country in like 2 months and she’s a freshman.” 

“Age is but a number, kiddo. She’s 18, you’re 21, that’s perfectly reasonable. The season is over anyway, so it’s not about soccer or being the captain anymore. As for the moving across the country, wait to see how the draft goes and then decide. But don’t you think North Carolina will take you?” 

“I hope they will but that relies on Houston passing me up at five and North Carolina taking me at seven probably, because if not Boston all but assured me they would take me at ten, I don’t know it’s confusing and complicated and ideally I end up in North Carolina but drafts are unpredictable, I could end up not getting drafted at all for all I know.” 

 

The first soccer party back after break is not a great one on Ali’s end. She decides three drinks in that she’s going to keep drinking so that she gets up the courage to kiss Becky- something even sober Ali would know is a bad idea. HAO cuts Ali off after she falls flat on her face trying to walk over to her, and the next thing Ali remembers, she’s emptying her guts into a toilet that’s not hers. She sits back against the cool wall of the bathroom, her head spinning as she fights for consciousness, when Becky walks in and hands Ali a glass of water. 

“Drink up, kiddo,” Becky tells her, a look of concern on her face. Ali is shaking as she tries to drink the water, and Becky sits down next to her, legs stretched out. 

“I’m sorry,” Ali mumbles, still too drunk to fully understand what is happening, but conscious enough to know throwing up in Becky’s bathroom means things aren’t going well. 

“It’s okay, it happens. You want to move to the couch?” 

Ali refuses to move the couch, and insists on sleeping on the bathroom floor, much to the annoyance of Yael, who has to climb over Ali and use the bathroom in her presence if she wants to use it at all. But Becky gives in, and makes sure Ali has a large cup of water and a blanket with her. She checks in on a sleeping Ali a few times, wanting to make sure she is indeed going to be okay, and adjusts her so that she is sleeping with her back against the wall, on her side. 

The next morning, Becky makes Ali breakfast and sits with her to make sure she’s actually okay before she lets her go home. Ali apologizes another eighty times, and Becky sighs. 

“Are things okay with Kyle?” Becky asks, knowing that they’ve talked a lot about how he is struggling. She was trying to figure out why Ali got that hammered last night, and she knows deep down that it was accidental. 

“I mean. No, but they aren’t any worse. Why?” Ali asks, slowly eating the eggs Becky made them. 

“Can we talk about why you drank so much last night? It’s okay, it happens, but I just want to talk about it,” Becky starts, trying to gauge how Ali feels about it. 

“It’s embarrassing,” Ali insists. 

“Try me,” Becky replies, and Ali shrugs, not sure how to even tell her. Becky sighs. “So, one time I sort of peed myself during practice for the youth national team because I was so nervous,” Becky adds, smiling when she gets a bit of a laugh out of Ali. “Put me out of my misery and tell me what is up?” Becky suggests, reaching for a bite of eggs. 

“I was drunk and I thought if I was super drunk then maybe I would have the balls to kiss you. Just to see if you’d kiss me back. I know, it’s not okay or fair and it’s good it didn’t happen but, yeah.” 

“Kriegy,” Becky starts, reaching over to put a hand on top of her friend’s. “We definitely need to talk. There’s something here, but I don’t know what to do about it, between the uncertainty about how the draft is going to go next week and I don’t really know if this is a good time or if this is a good… situation, just with you being a freshman and whatnot,” Becky trails off. She can see the hurt in Ali’s eyes, and it hurts her heart. 

“It’s okay, I just can’t lose you as a friend,” Ali replies. “Seriously. It was a stupid thought, okay?” 

“It wasn’t a stupid thought and we both know it. Let’s touch bases after the draft and see where to go from there, because I want to explore this, it’s just a lot to consider and I don’t want to fuck around with you, I care too much about you for that.” 

 

They go to dinner the next night for their cheat meal, just Shake Shack. Yael and HAO were supposed to come, but then Yael was stressed about studying for an exam and HAO ended up doing something with her boyfriend, so the two of them awkwardly decided to just go themselves. Ali buys the food, to thank Becky for taking care of her the other day. They settle into their easy conversation, talking about everything from class to the draft to family to roommates. 

“I’m pretty sure professors just overload us with work during syllabus week to get us to drop the class,” Ali asserts, reflecting on her readings for her Gender and Media elective. 

“That sounds right to me. That class sounds really cool though, keep me updated on it,” Becky replies, leaning over to take one of Ali’s french fries, leading to Ali’s fake outrage and the two of them laughing while going after each other’s food until Ali finds herself with her face just inches away from the beautiful blonde’s, wishing things were different. They are kind of quiet while they finish their food and head back to campus. Becky knows Yael is out, so she asks Ali over for a glass of wine and some studying time. Ali raises an eyebrow; they both know it is a bad idea, but they do it anyway. Becky hasn’t even poured the chardonnay yet when Ali gives her this lustful look and before either of them know it, Ali’s back is against the wall of Becky’s kitchen and they’re kissing. Months of pent up frustration and tension melt away as tongues and lips collide, quiet moans and wandering hands. Becky bites down on Ali’s bottom lip, and Ali is sure this is what heaven is supposed to feel like. 

Ali walks home an hour later, her lips swollen, hair messy, and her mind fuzzy. Becky is scared- she’s realizing she has feelings for Ali, deeper feelings than she thought she did; she’s trying to come to terms with the fact that she just invited her over and made out with her and it was absolutely incredible. The next week goes by slowly as possibly, something Becky pins entirely on “the draft” though Yael can tell something else is up, but figures she’ll find out sooner or later.

Becky and Yael drive up to DC for the draft together, both hoping to get picked. They leave early in the morning so that they can make it in time, not wanting to spend money on a hotel room. It’s intimidating and exciting all at once. Becky can barely breathe, prepared for anything to happen. They suspect Becky will go in the first round, if not second round. Yael is hoping to be taken in general, but is trying to prepare herself for the possibility that she might not. 

The first few picks go mostly as predicted, and Houston gives Becky a huge sigh of relief when they take a different defender with their #5 pick. Portland goes for a forward with the sixth pick, and then Becky gets the text she was hoping she would get, a simple “Congratulations, Becky, and welcome to the Courage.” 

Ali is watching on live stream, and she is shaking waiting for the decision time to be up for the North Carolina Courage. She has her computer volume blasted in her headphones, watching as the commissioner makes her way up to announce the next pick. 

“With the number 7 pick in the first round of the 2017 NWSL College Draft, the North Carolina Courage select Rebecca Sauerbrunn, the University of North Carolina.” 

Ali screams, almost throwing her computer across the room as she watches Becky make her way up to the stage. She’s wearing a simple blue dress with a fishtail braid, and she looks absolutely stunning. She puts on the North Carolina Courage scarf and takes the podium. 

“I just wanted to thank my teammates, friends, and family for supporting me in everything, and I’m so unbelievably excited to be staying in North Carolina. Thank you to everyone at the Courage, I can’t wait for the season to start,” Becky says confidently, smiling wide and holding onto the bottom of her scarf. To top off an amazing day, the Washington Spirit select Yael with the number 19 pick, meaning her best friend will only be a few hours away. 

“So, the Courage,” Ali mentions a few days later while they’re doing some drills together, just the two of them.  

“The Courage,” Becky replies. They had texted on the day of the draft, congratulations and all, but haven’t actually talked about what it means for them yet. “I want to try this, Ali. If you do.” 

“Hmm, I don’t know. I have to think about it. You see, I have this really esteemed position on the soccer team called occasional sub and I’ve tallied two assists already in my college career. I don’t know if you can handle that,” Ali teases, a huge smile on her face. Becky laughs, abandoning the ball they’d been passing back and forth and walking up to her, a hand on each of her cheeks and pulling her in for a short and sweet kiss. 

“Will you go on a date with me?” Becky asks, and Ali swears her heart is about to flutter out of her chest. 

“Yes, of course,” Ali replies, before leaning in to capture her lips once more, harder this time, a hand going to Becky’s lower back. Becky breaks the kiss, not wanting to get too heated in public, and smiles against Ali’s lips, opening her eyes to really look at how beautiful the younger girl is. 

  
  


Ali loves to just pick Becky’s brain for hours. She'll ask her to talk about her opinion on literally anything and just sit there and listen to her work it out and talk it out. They spend a lot of time in the library with Yael and HAO and they eventually tell the team they're “sort of trying something”. Beckys leaving in a month so, nobody really cares, though many are pretty surprised. KO replies to the team group chat with an all-caps “I CALLED IT,” which most find pretty amusing, and which Yael is forced to explain to an embarrassed Becky later that evening. 

Ali is a physics major, and whenever Ali talks about physics, Becky is pleasantly out of her element. There’s something really nice about it; she’s always had that feeling that she just understood things others often struggled with, that they sometimes couldn’t keep up with her intellectual conversation, but Ali pushed her in a new way. It’s incredible for her just to see Ali in such a male-dominated, difficult academic discipline. Ali tries to explain her problem sets to her and spends hours upon hours in the library working with other people from her class. Becky never thought she could find physics sexy, but she absolutely does. Ali gets that focused look on her face, biting her lip and doodling on her page as she works through a problem in her head, and Becky melts every time. 

 

Two weeks later, Becky official asks Ali to be her girlfriend, while they chill on the couch eating salads, Ali stops, fork mid-way to her mouth. 

“You’re serious?”   
  
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? We are already acting like girlfriends, I would be honored to put the label on it. Unless that makes you uncomfortable, but either way we gotta talk about it,” Becky offers, a bit nervous by how thrown off Ali seems. 

“Not uncomfortable at all, I’d love to be your girlfriend. I just wasn’t sure you wanted to get real with you leaving soon…” 

“I think things are going well, and I’m not guaranteeing we’ll be able to stay like this once the season starts, especially once I’m travelling, but I don’t want to let this opportunity slip past us, I think this is the start of something good.” 

Ali smiles, taking another bite of her kale, feta cheese, and dried cranberries: “To the start of something good, girlfriend,” she says, smiling and leaning in to kiss her softly. 

 

They swear off any and all PDA at team parties, knowing neither of them feel comfortable showing that kind of affection in front of their teammates, and they don’t want to give them any reason to be uncomfortable with their relationship. This goes well for the most part, mostly due to the fact that Becky is only a bit tipsy and Ali isn’t going as hard as she usually does, something about wanting to remember the night. Ali finds herself in conversation with KO, who is complaining about how she hasn’t got laid in three weeks.   
  
“Three weeks? I haven’t gotten laid in six months,” Ali whines. KO almost chokes on her beer. 

“No way you and Becky aren’t fucking,” KO calls out, and Ali almost keels over in embarrassment. KO is looking at her with her jaw on the floor, and Ali doesn’t even know what to say. 

“I feel weird bringing it up, I don’t know.” 

Becky is close enough to hear this entire conversation, also feeling a bit embarrassed. Sex was kind of the last piece of the puzzle. She didn’t want to initiate because she didn’t want Ali to feel pressured or taken advantage of, and because she genuinely didn’t think they needed it in their relationship at that moment. She’s slightly uncomfortable that their team is listening to this conversation, and Yael, who is more drunk than usual celebrating being picked by “that homophobic Washington team but at least it’s nearby!” starts to pick on her about it.   
  
“Look Becks, I’m straight and I’d be all over that if she was my girlfriend,” Yael insists. It’s the least “Yael” thing she’s ever heard her say, and can’t help but be mortified and also kind of impressed. By the time the three of them head back to Becky and Yael’s place later that night, all their teammates are making jokes about how they’re going to get laid and they’re absolutely mortified. 

“We’re talking about this in the morning,” Ali mumbles, flopping into Becky’s bed in her jeans and shorts, cuddling up with a stuffed animal she found elsewhere in Becky’s room. Becky can’t help but find her heart melting at the sight of her cute girl snuggled up in her bed. She changes into pajamas and spoons her from behind, kissing her on the cheek gently once and wrapping her arms around her. 

 

“You told me about Aaron, and I didn’t know how you were with sex and if you would be comfortable and I just didn’t know how to bring it up,” Becky admits early the next morning, sitting cross-legged on her bed, reflecting on the couple of late night conversations they’d had about Ali’s experience as a sexual assault survivor. Ali reaches over and pulls Becky into a tight hug.   
  
“I love that about you. But I’ve had sex since then, and I like having sex, and I want to have sex with you, I just didn’t know how to tell you that,” Ali tells her.   
  
They talk, and an hour or so later, Ali heads back to her room with a renewed sense of excitement, feeling wanted and fulfilled and kind of scared. Not scared for sex, but scared about the fact that she knows she’s in deep. Waking up in Becky’s arms this morning, playing with her messy blonde hair, having real conversations while sitting on her bed, she felt something she’s never felt before. 

 

Sex, once sex happens, is exactly what it should be: a fun, fulfilling addition to the relationship. The first time is a bit awkward in the “wait can you touch here there instead” and “sorry I almost kneed you in the face” kind of way, and things start out a bit vanilla as they tend to, but in one of the biggest twists their relationship sees, Becky turns out to be the wild one in the bedroom. 

“I literally cannot believe this,” Ali says, panting as she comes down from an orgasm, her hair splayed across the pillow and her legs still shaking. “I can’t believe you’re dirty like this. You do things to me I didn’t even know my body could do.” 

Becky chuckles, leaning down to kiss her on the lips softly, tracing her bare abs with her free hand. “Me? Dirty? Never,” she teases, her good girl persona on as she kisses Ali’s jaw gently, just enjoying the feeling of her girlfriend below her. They fall into this dynamic in the bedroom, each having the opportunity to dominate and be dominated, each feeling like they can talk about things they want to try and exploring new things the other suggests. It’s new and exciting for both of them, but as the date circled on Becky and Yael’s calendar is constantly reminding her- it’s almost time for preseason. 

Since the Courage only play about half an hour away from Chapel Hill and Becky and Yael have the apartment, it makes sense for Becky to continue to live there. This also makes her whole “finish school” plan a little more convenient, because she can actually still go to some classes in person. They have plans to sublet Yael’s room for the summer, but for the moment Becky is living there alone. 

During preseason, it’s easy enough for them to see each other. They have dinner together, Ali sleeps over often, and things aren’t that different from how they were before. The Courage plays their first preseason game against UNC, and Becky absolutely destroys Ali, stripping her of possession multiple times, to the point where Ali barely wants to look at her after the game, she’s so full of rage. Becky just laughs and pull Ali into a hug. 

“Why are you so good,” Ali whines, finally giving in and hugging her girlfriend back. 

“Hey, you’re getting there. You fought hard today,” Becky reminds her, before pulling away to continue hugging her old teammates. 

In some ways, things are changing. Ali is still at school, still figuring out college and being a freshman, and Becky is meeting new people and growing as a player and person in different and new ways. They find their dinner conversations to get more and more interesting as time goes on, keeping each other updated about their lives and realizing that there’s more to talk about, more to learn. Ali has to admit, it’s hard in ways she wasn’t expecting. Becky is now friends with real professional soccer stars, and is just on a completely different level. 

It’s hard, especially once the season starts and they’re travelling and Ali has to take finals and then she’s home in Virginia for the summer. At about mid-July, after barely having the time to talk for about a week, Ali is sure Becky is about to break up with her. She calls her with the precursor that they need to “talk” and Ali wants to throw up. 

“We need to work on this. I know, most of it is on me and me just not making it work with my schedule, but I miss you so much,” Becky tells her. “I don’t know how we can fix it but we need to. I can feel that we’re drifting and it’s breaking my heart. Ali, I love you.” 

That conversation is the turning point. They become more purposeful about it- Ali spending as much time in North Carolina as she can for the duration of the summer, and Becky making trips up to Virginia when she has days off. Becky learns the incredible feeling of watching her girlfriend wear her jersey proudly at games and even more proudly in the bedroom, where the jersey is all she has on.   
  
“I’m all yours, baby,” Ali whispers in her ear as she snuggles up next to her naked girlfriend, the jersey having managed to make it all the way through a long night of post-game “i miss you” sex. 

It’s not easy and progress is not linear, but eventually summer ends, and Ali is moving back to North Carolina, and into what was previously Yael’s bedroom. It was a difficult decision, and they worried it would be taking things too fast given the slow progress of their relationship with the separation over the summer, but the consideration that Ali would have her own room paired with the fact that they’d barely seen each other since April made it easier than it probably should’ve been. 

And while making breakfast for herself and her girlfriend while standing in a sports bra and pajama shorts, Ali remembers how lucky she is. Even when things are hard, Becky is there, dedicated to showing up for her. Even though their lives have grown apart in so many ways, Ali looks at Becky and feels like there’s nowhere she’d rather be than in her arms. Life is short, nothing is perfect, and their relationship isn’t without difficulty, but they have something really good. Something solid, something exciting, something authentic. Something real. And they both, while cuddled up in bed, soft kisses placed to sensitive skin and arms wrapped around waists, hope it lasts. 

**Author's Note:**

> hi loves <3 
> 
> if you like this, please let me know! i could definitely use some writing encouragement!! 
> 
> also, please follow me on tumblr: captain-kriegy! 
> 
> thank you so much for reading, i hope you liked them together in this au :)


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